Dorothy âDGâ Gifford Bancroft was a tenth generation Manhattanite, born to a surgeon and the managing RN of Columbia Presbyterian ER. DG headed to Stanford, her fatherâs alma mater, for college. There, she met, fell in love, and married Dixie Bob âD. BobâGowin, who was raised on a pony farm in Ft. Worth, Texas.
After Stanford, the attractive young couple soon had two young children as their professional lives brought them to Ithaca. Sarah was four years old when she arrived at their home on Dryden Road with her parents and her brother Robin. DG wanted to live near a bus line, and Bob could walk to the Education Department at Cornell.